The printed media arts, such as newspapers and magazines, have developed rapid electronic distribution systems for providing time-sensitive newspaper copy to remotely located towns and cities for printing and local distribution to subscribers. Thus, electronic mass transmission of the media copy has been formatted for use in printing plants using conventional printing presses and requiring local distribution by convention carriers. In these distribution systems, updated news copy is available at best in early and late newspaper editions, without the possibility of distributing extra editions to subscribers at the time news breaks become available.
Any attempts at direct publisher to subscriber electronic communications have been costly and limited in scope because of the necessity to allot wide band radio transmission channels and dedicated telephone lines for point-to-point connections in electronic distribution systems. Furthermore such electronic systems require complex equipment for monitoring and distribution of the data. In the case of point-to-point facsimile systems, dedicated communication lines are required to avoid the problems encountered with overloaded connections and busy lines when communications are simultaneously required to many distribution points through the telephone switching systems. Furthermore the accompanying telephone charges are costly and uncontrollable by the media source. Accordingly prior art mass communication systems are complicated by the requirement to store mass data and to establish point-to-point communications in a transmission phase for reaching large numbers of individual subscribers.
Similarly computer networks, such as "Internet", provide for point-to-point connections between sending and receiving stations over dedicated connection lines. These are not suitable for processing such mass audiences as newspaper subscribers. Furthermore they require such extensive charges, protocol and formatting requirements for massive data transmissions that it is not feasible to provide a simple low-cost newspaper delivery system. Therefore presently conceived computer networks are not feasible for distribution of the daily newspaper, requiring masses of data to instantaneously reach a myriad of separate computerized reception points. The computer network facilities cannot process such data mass traffic requirements to so many subscribers without becoming jammed in the same way that commercial telephone switching networks are tied up during heavy traffic conditions.
Accordingly it is a primary objective of this invention to provide an instantaneously accessible low-cost mass-communication electronic system for transmission of masses of printed media copy simultaneously to large numbers of subscribers from a media source for subscriber viewing at various geographical locations.
Radio transmission of printed and video media data over subcarriers of FM radio broadcast stations to end users has been proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,646,290, Feb. 24, 1987, to M. T. Hills; 5,023,934, Jun. 11, 1991 to J. Wheeless and 5,070,404, Dec. 3, 1991 to W. J. Bullock, et al. However these systems are not satisfactory for error free transmissions and require complex signal translations into and out of various codes with the possibility of error, and the resulting higher cost of data manipulation. Expensive auxiliary specialized equipment is required, which is not readily commercially available or useful for other purposes at the reception station. Thus, these prior art systems are not suitable for distribution of newspapers, but there is merit in the general method of local distribution of mass data to reach large numbers of end users over a subcarrier of an FM broadcast radio station.
These prior art systems are not capable of transmission of data that is coded and transmitted in a format directly used in a personal computer at the reception station, for example. Nor are they capable of satisfactory error correction techniques for eliminating any errors that may be introduced in the radio transmission phase. A particular problem is presented in this respect in a one-way transmission system without feedback to the transmitting source.
Accordingly it is an accompanying objective of the invention to provide a simplified inexpensive mass data communication system to broadcast massive data for reproducing newspapers including pictures. Another objective is to avoid complex encoding-recoding steps by transmission of the newspaper copy in a format which can be directly processed by standard commercial computers without code conversion.
A still further objective is to provide a one-way transmission system in which errors introduced in the transmission phase may be detected and eliminated.
Furthermore a primary objective is to produce a significantly improved newspaper distribution system.
In the distribution system for a newspaper or other periodical type of printed media many costly and time consuming steps have conventionally been required in the prior art. For example, conventionally the papers are printed at a central city site for manual carrier distribution to subscribers throughout the city. This introduces distribution problems, high cost, time delays and waste occurred in overprinting.
Furthermore the cost and waste of newsprint is a significant social problem incurred because of the temporary life value nature of newspapers resulting in high newsprint cost, environmental pollution, loss of forestation and complex disposal procedures. Because of the comprehensive subject matter in the newspapers for reaching the combined needs of a large subscribing audience also there is a great waste of resources in that few subscribers are interested in the entire newspaper and immediately discard significant portions as surplus. There is no known present newspaper delivery system that affords the subscriber the opportunity to select only those portions of the entire newspaper that are of personal significance.
There has not yet been introduced a viable and operable newspaper distribution system reaching the subscribers directly for viewing by each subscriber without printing on newsprint, nor of any practical way to avoid the newspaper distribution wastes caused by the conventional system of distribution.
Accordingly it is a further objective of this invention to provide a practical, low waste, low cost and substantially instantaneous electronic newspaper distribution system. Thus, the subscriber's personally selected newspaper files may be stored electronically in a subscriber's computer system for viewing and disposal, thereby avoiding the conventional wastes of newsprint.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be found throughout the appended drawings, the following description and the claims.